Townsend Artists’ Soft Form Pastels

Diane Townsend’s palette of Soft Form pastels encompasses both classical artists’ colors and an exotic and vivid range of modern pigments and mixes based on observation of color in nature and in paintings ranging from the Renaissance to contemporary art.

Included are a specialty range of dark hues and off blacks; metallic, pearlescent and iridescent colors; and many grays and mauves mixed in such a way to give off a silvery light rather than being dull and flat.

All Soft Form pastels are formed by hand into pleasing one-of-a-kind sticks that contain no chalks or fillers. Each color is available in a range of hues that includes both light and dark shades.

I am a hobby artist but I own nearly every brand of soft pastels. The consistance and feel of these are just wonderful. They are expensive, but not more so than other high end soft pastels, all of which are expensive. I will absolutely be purchasing more.

I haven't used other types of pastels, so I can't compare the Diane Townsend pastels with other pastels. I do know that I love using them. I make drawings of fruits, vegetables, and other produce, and I use Townsend pastels for both black-and-white and color drawings. The colors are vibrant and adhere well to pastel paper. Also, a little pigment goes a long way. I've done many drawings with the same blocks of color, which makes these pastels a good value.

Once again I ordered from Blick art materials... Bought some individuals Townsend soft pastels. Delivered before the due date ! Were packaged perfectly ! Those pastels are like velours or cream ! Colours are rich and vibrant. Try them once... you will ask for more.

I'm new to pastels and already have a large set to get started. However, I needed those certain colors that I love to "fill in" and Dick Blick is one of the few places I could fine where they offer open stock. So glad to have found this. I was able to use a coupon as well and that made their prices a bit better than anyone else.